Working Together to Keep Costs in Check

TVonMySide.com is your source for up-to-date information and solutions about TV network disputes. This website is a collaborative effort of hundreds of local, independent Cable TV providers located throughout the country in communities like yours. By uniting our companies, we can work together to achieve more flexibility and better offerings for you at the lowest price possible.

Viacom

Viacom - MTV Networks

We are currently in talks with Viacom, the owner of cable networks such as Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, TV Land, BET and many others.

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Retransmission Fees Are Expected to Dramatically Increase

Local TV stations are demanding increasingly higher fees to be included on TV Provider’s line-ups, even though they are still available free over-the-air. National broadcast networks are adding to the burden by demanding a cut of local stations’ fees. If their demands are not met, they pull their signals from their viewers and ask you to complain to your TV Provider, leaving you without your favorite programming until an agreement is reached. And if those fee demands are met, it results in higher prices for you.

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Our Job: Being on Your Side

Our goal is to manage your monthly bill by fighting against excessive Network fee increases from large, powerful media conglomerates. That’s why we are a member of the NCTC, a collective of more than 800 independent Local TV and Broadband providers across the United States. This allows us to negotiate as one larger group to gain the cost benefits that the larger Cable and Satellite TV providers enjoy, while still enabling us to provide home-town service to our customers.

We know you want a good value. When networks demand huge fee increases,
we work to get the best offerings at the best price so we can keep your bill as low as possible.

You want more choice and control with your TV programming: We strive to get networks to
offer their shows to you on YOUR terms, not theirs.

We ask that networks do not hold their channel hostage from you while we are negotiating. When the Networks pull their signal, they are hoping to get you to put pressure on us to get them to agree to their demands for higher Network fees – and we all end up paying more.

Ever Wonder About the Costs That Make Up Your Monthly Local TV Bill?

Because we’re a hometown business, we are invested in our community, our employees and our customers. With Network fees dramatically increasing and impacting your monthly bill, we wanted to give you a backstage pass to better understand the economics of the TV business.

How five media conglomerates control about 90% of TV Networks, and use this power to charge excessive Network fees and force consumers to pay for extra channels.

How the steeply rising price of TV sports rights has doubled the basic Satellite and Cable TV bill over the past decade.

How broadcast stations use an outdated law to force all Satellite and Cable customers to pay for stations that are available FREE over the air, at an average total rate that has increased over 6000% in less than a decade.

How Networks use blackouts to get customers to pressure all Satellite and Cable providers to give in to the demands.

In the News

Comcast program surcharges have spiked by 241% in 3 years, analysis says

Since first initiating customer surcharges in January 2015, Comcast has increased fees for broadcast and sports programming by a combined 241% to $14.50 a month in most markets. "The cost of retransmission imposed by broadcasters continues to increase significantly as do the costs charged by regional sports programmers, and while these fees are increasing they only defray a portion of what we are being charged to be able to carry these channels,” Comcast responded in a statement.

Sinclair bid to be biggest could also make it most hated TV company in America

“A funny thing happened on the way to muscling this thing through: It turns out people don’t like the idea of one local television company having access to 72 percent of American households,” said Karl Frisch, executive director of Allied Progress.

GCI reports that the owners of the Fox affiliates in Fairbanks and Juneau are demanding 300% increases in rates across multiple TV stations. GCI said the Fox interests implemented their blackout suddenly and unexpectedly earlier in November and have not relented.
“In Alaska that’s not called negotiating, that’s called robbery,” GCI said in a statement.

Should You Switch TV Providers
During a Dispute?

We’d like you to stay and here is why: Networks want you to switch to get us to agree to their demands. But the fact is that ALL TV providers (whether Satellite, Cable or telephone providers) face this same problem, and it’s the TV provider that is working to keep your bill low – not the Network. So even if you switch TV providers now, chances are that you will experience the same problem with another one down the line. Networks don’t care about the cost, time and inconvenience that switching means for you; they get paid either way.

In anticipation of new FCC rules which could limit the removal of signals from lineups during disputes, Networks have become increasingly aggressive and have opted to pull the plug on their viewers over 120 times so far this year. . By doing this, these Networks repeatedly use their viewers as bargaining chips to extract higher fees from providers.

For more on how your cable provider is fighting to keep your local stations in your channel lineup, visit www.KeeptheConnections.com.

Here are examples of recent disputes between TV programmers and TV providers. Click on any dispute to read more:

Still Have Questions?
We Have Answers.

Q: Why do I have to pay for channels I never watch?

A: Cable TV providers are often required by contract to carry both the most-popular and least-popular cable networks. In turn, if we ask for a price for just the most-popular networks, a common response from channel owners is to raise their price, effectively eliminating this option from consideration.Here’s a hypothetical scenario to help illustrate the situation: Imagine that, under its current contract, a certain programming channel owner is receiving a total of $4.00 per customer per month for three channels. Only one of those three channels is highly rated.

Q: Why do programming channel owners take their channels away from TV providers?

A: This is an unfortunate tactic that channel owners use to gain leverage in their negotiations. What’s more, before and after they remove channels, they may ask you to call and/or email your Cable TV service provider in an attempt to put pressure on the provider to cave in to the channel owners’ excessive fee increases.

Q: If channels are temporarily suspended, what are my viewing options?

A: In each situation, we’ll communicate viewing alternatives, when and where they’re available.

Q: I keep hearing how sports networks are a big portion of my total monthly bill. How can just a few networks make such an impact?

A: It’s because many leagues, conferences, teams and college sports have their own Networks – each with its own high fee, yet offering little or no additional games. And they insist that it be carried in packages that reach the most customers, instead of sports packages – making even non-fans pay.